NYU revamps its plan for old MTA HQ

In a bow to cost and environmental factors, the school has opted to restore rather than makeover the 500,000-square-foot property at 370 Jay St. on the edge of downtown Brooklyn. Work is expected to begin in 2015.

A rendering of 370 Jay St. in downtown Brooklyn after New York Unversity renovated the property.

New York University's makeover of 370 Jay St. in downtown Brooklyn will move forward, but it will not be quite as dramatic as previously advertised. The school submitted its final plans for the former Metropolitan Transportation Authority headquarters Wednesday night and they bear little resemblance to the renderings of a futuristic glass and steel structure that the university had passed around after agreeing to take over the building in 2012.

Instead, NYU will take a more cost- and environmentally-conscious approach, restoring existing elements of the structure instead of the drastic remake it had originally proposed. The school says that the new design for the city-owned structure is more in keeping with its plans to create a modern, sustainable academic center that will house its growing tech incubators alongside expanded engineering and applied sciences programs. All of that will now be next to the recently rechristened NYU School of Engineering campus in Brooklyn.

“What excites us about being in Brooklyn in general is that we’re able to build out this new location and these new programs in such a hot part of the city,” Dr. Alicia Hurley, vice president of government affairs and community engagement at NYU told Crain’s. “Taking this building and really transforming it so it’s friendly to look at is a fundamental part of our approach.”

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The nearly vacant building on the edge of downtown Brooklyn has been an increasingly embarrassing eyesore since the agency decamped for new digs a few blocks away on Adams Street nearly 25 years ago. The agency left behind some communications equipment and a skeleton police operation in the 500,000-square-foot, 14-story building. As NYU and Polytechnic University moved towards a merger in 2008, with an eye towards expanding the combined engineering school’s footprint in downtown Brooklyn, momentum grew. In April 2012, a deal was struck between all parties to make 370 Jay the future home of an applied sciences center.

While the original plan submitted included new floor to ceiling windows, new floor plates and a massively reimagined ground floor that would combine an open atrium with the subway entrance in the base of the building, the designs presented to Brooklyn’s Community Board 2 Wednesday night call for more adaptive reuse than makeover.

“While the building is pretty rough to look at now, underneath is well-preserved limestone” said Dr. Hurley. “It’s pretty phenomenal.”

Photo: Courtesy of NYU

Rendering of 370 Jay St.

In its new plan, NYU trumpets several so-called sustainable elements, including restoration of the building’s existing limestone façade. By choosing restoration over renovation, NYU projects that it will reduce the amount of construction landfill waste by approximately 4,000 cubic yards. Additionally, NYU now plans to replace all of 370 Jay’s more than 1,000 windows with energy-efficient versions. Windows on the buildings south-facing façade will also be equipped with new shades that will protrude out from the top of the sills, providing major energy savings on the building’s sunnier side.

The property will also get new mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems plus a one megawatt micro turbine. Green roof elements are also being incorporated into the new design.

When the job is done, NYU will occupy nearly every square foot of the building. NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress will take the top three floors, and the university plans to combine its three tech incubators—Urban Future Lab in Downtown Brooklyn, Varick Street Incubator in Manhattan, and the DUMBO Incubator—on the third floor. The remainder will be used for classroom space and other academic miscellany.

The building’s ground floor will now be split between a Citizen’s Science Lab —conceived by NYU School of Engineering as a space where engineering students can use their research to interact with the public—and 14,000 square feet of retail space.

The project requires approval by the Public Design Commission. If approved, construction will begin in 2015 and is expected to be completed by 2017.